The Next Golden Girl Versatile NATALIE COUGHLIN, who qualified for seven events at this week's world championships, is on course to be a star at the Olympics

Jim and Zennie Coughlin sat in the stands at a Barcelonanatatorium on Sunday morning watching their daughter begin herquest to conquer the swimming world. After 20-year-old Natalieadvanced easily in her heat of the 100-meter butterfly, herfirst event at the world championships, Zennie turned to herapplauding husband and made a halting motion with her hands."Save your cheering," she said. "Long, long way to go."¬∂ Indeed,the Coughlins knew that their daughter--who'd hoped to win sevenmedals in three different strokes at the worlds--had a headache,a sore throat and a 102¬∫ fever. That night, remarkably, in herthird race of the day, the still-ailing Natalie swam ablistering leadoff leg to propel the U.S. to victory in thewomen's 4x100-meter freestyle relay. But on Monday, her bodydrained, she failed to qualify for the final of the 100-meterbackstroke, an event in which she holds the world record, andfinished eighth in the 100 fly final. "I felt weak again thismorning," she said afterward. "I was hoping I could advance [inthe 100 back], but that was the best that Icould do. It justneeds time."

With six days of competition left in Barcelona, Coughlin hoped to rebound, but regardless of how the week unfolds, there is little question that her illness was but a temporary setback. On the brink of a stardom that was deferred by injury four years ago, Coughlin is the most versatile American female swimmer in two decades. The Cal senior-to-be owns 17 American records, five world marks and more NCAA titles (nine) and records (six) than Georgia coach Jack Bauerle cares to count. "She has changed swimming," says Bauerle. "She doesn't break records just by hundredths, she breaks them by body lengths. Thanks to her, what we thought was fast is no longer."

She's also camera-ready and poised. When the Today show asked her to do a cooking segment with Al Roker last November, she jumped at the chance to prepare a pork tenderloin and persimmon risotto. When Roker responded with a heavy hand to her cue for him to "cover it with wine," Coughlin betrayed no alarm; she just kept smiling as she said, "Measurements don't matter."

She is equally smooth in the pool. In one jaw-dropping month last summer she became the first woman to win five individual events at a U.S. nationals since Tracy Caulkins did so in 1978, the first American woman to break 54 seconds in the 100-meter freestyle, and the first woman anywhere to break a minute in the 100-meter backstroke.

Coughlin could also set new standards in the marketing of swimmers when she turns pro--either after the worlds or when her NCAA eligibility ends in March--"to the point where SportsCenter covers her apparel deal," says Evan Morgenstein, who represents about 90% of the postgraduate swimmers on the national team. Whether it's Speedo, Nike or TYR Sport that inks the deal, Morgenstein expects it to be the largest ever for an American swimmer.

Add to that the expectation that in Athens next summer she could challenge the record for Olympic medals won by a female swimmer at one Games (six, by Kristin Otto in 1988), and Coughlin could feel some deep-fathom pressure. "It can be tough," she says. "A lot of people say, 'You're a psychology major--does that affect how you handle pressure?' I have never worked with a sports psychologist. I think pressure is something you have to learn to deal with yourself. No one else can tell you how to deal with it. If I become a sports psychologist in five years, you can repeat that to me."

While Coughlin hoped to use the worlds as a test run for the Olympics, the seven events she entered in Barcelona--the 100 fly, the 100 and 200 back, the 100 free and three relays--may not be the ones she'll tackle in Athens. Coughlin is the rare swimmer who is a threat in nearly every event. Though she excels at the shorter distances now, she grew up swimming distance freestyle and the individual medley, along with the occasional breaststroke. Last December she swam a 500-yard free "just to prove I can still do it, that I'm not a wimp," she says. (For those who aren't convinced, her time of 4:37.62 was the fifth fastest in history.)

Such versatility hasn't been seen since Caulkins, who held an American record in every stroke at some point in her career during the 1970s and '80s and messed with heads just by showing up at meets. "As it was with Tracy," says USC coach Mark Schubert, "whenever Natalie swims, everybody else is guessing what event she isn't going to swim, because that will be the event they might have a chance in."

Like a lot of top swimmers, Coughlin has some unusual physical attributes, including a wingspan that is five inches longer than her 5'8" body, hyperextensive knees and elbows, and flexibility that would make Gumby envious. (Coughlin can bend at the waist and touch her elbows to the floor.) But beyond that, there is little about her physically that indicates swimming dominance. She is considered short by elite swimming standards, and she isn't naturally very strong. ("I don't think I was supposed to have any muscle, because I lose it within a week if I stop working out," she says.) Her cardiovascular capacity isn't extraordinary either, nor is her feel for the water--"It's not even the best on the team," says Cal coach Teri McKeever.

It is Coughlin's focus on technique that has made her one of the most efficient swimmers on the planet. "In the backstroke specifically, there isn't anyone in the world who has her efficiency level in terms of technique," says Jonty Skinner, a former freestyle world-record holder who is the chief physiology data collector for U.S. Swimming. "If you compared her [stroke cadence] with the rest of the backstrokers in the world, male and female, Natalie would look like she is on a Sunday afternoon stroll while everyone else is sprinting downhill."

A more dramatic comparison can be made below the surface, where Coughlin torpedoes through the water using an underwater butterfly kick for the full allowable 15 meters on every start and turn. "Everyone tries to teach it, but I don't think any female swimmer has ever done it as well as Natalie," says Bauerle. "It gives her a great setup for a swim. She is explosive right from the start, and it puts her in a winning position and everyone else back on their heels almost immediately."

Coughlin developed her world-beating kick after her stroke failed her at what seemed to be the most inopportune moment in her promising career. As a 15-year-old with the Concord (Calif.) Terrapins in 1998, she had wowed the aquatics world by becoming the first person in history to qualify for all 14 women's individual events at the nationals. At the U.S. Open later that year she won four of the five individual events she entered. "I was really setting myself up for an amazing Olympic trials in 2000," she says. "I was kind of the golden child who had so much potential."

But after completing a particularly long butterfly set just weeks before the nationals in the spring of 1999, she awoke in the middle of the night with a throbbing left shoulder. Doctors diagnosed a torn labrum, the only remedy for which was an operation that was likely to severely limit her range of motion. She opted for physical therapy instead, and though it helped, she could do solid training only intermittently. At some meets she swam seconds slower than her best times. "The whole experience was incredibly trying," says Coughlin. "I ended up hating swimming." To get her cardiovascular work in, she did laps and laps holding onto a kickboard, propelling herself only with her kicking, which became ever more powerful.

Despite her compromised training, she came in fourth in the 200 IM at the 2000 Olympic trials, not bad, but not good enough to make the team. "I didn't care. I wasn't happy, I wasn't upset. I was indifferent," she says. "I just thought, Well, that's over with. I just wanted to go to college and have a different environment, a different everything."

She had chosen Cal over Stanford and UCLA in part because she had felt a bond with McKeever, a former two-time All-America at USC who emphasizes technique-driven pool workouts along with cross-training sessions of spinning, running, yoga, weights and the occasional game of sharks and minnows. "Teri made swimming fun again," says Coughlin. McKeever also made adjustments to Coughlin's stroke that protected her shoulder so that by the fall of 2000 she could withstand full training again. As a freshman Coughlin won her first three NCAA titles and the first of her three NCAA swimmer of the year awards. She and McKeever continue to refine her stroke, and she still kicks far more than her teammates. "Her willingness to be coached and try new things amazes me," says McKeever. "A lot of people who are successful think, Why change anything?"

Besides forcing her to develop a killer kick, the shoulder injury gave Coughlin a new perspective. "I feel like it's easier for me to just let swimming go now," she says. "I don't obsess about it like I used to."

According to Jim and Zennie, neither of their two daughters (Megan, 17, will attend UC Davis in the fall) has ever been particularly obsessive about swimming, though they have been doing it since infancy. Jim and Zennie set the example. They don't bring stopwatches to meets. They don't necessarily care if their kids win. "People are always asking, 'What's Natalie's best time in this?' and I'll say, 'I don't know. It's pretty fast,'" says Jim, a sergeant in the Vallejo Police Department. "I have friends at work who say, 'Don't you know her time is a one-double-oh-whatever?' Her time isn't important. Did she have fun? Did she think she did well? If those are covered, I don't care about the rest."

When Natalie decides to learn something new, she dives in deep, reading books and magazines and taking instruction, if necessary. She has become a superb cook, whipping up dishes in her north Berkeley studio apartment, sometimes for boyfriend Ethan Hall, a former UC Santa Barbara swimmer. "If she makes her mind up to do something," says Zennie, "she will perfect it." Thus, someday we can expect Natalie to be fluent in Tagalog, the language in which her maternal grandmother and her Filipino relatives joke and gossip during family reunions, and in pro football, the sport in which she, an Oakland Raiders fan, would most like to test her sideline-reporting chops.

She loves boxing, too--"probably because I never got into a fight as a kid, and I always wanted to," she says--and was hugely disappointed to miss the Lennox Lewis-Mike Tyson heavyweight bout last year. "I was at a meet in Charlotte and staying with a family, and I couldn't really say, 'Hey, could you guys order this $50 pay-per-view event so I can watch the fight?'"

She could have asked if she were a typical star athlete. The fact that she didn't--and isn't--may be the best reason to cheer her on, in sickness and in health.

COLOR PHOTO: COURTESY ZENNIE COUGHLIN ALL GROWN UP Coughlin, who took to the pool as an infant, holds five world records and is a nine-time NCAA champ.COLOR PHOTO: PHOTOGRAPH BY BRIAN LANKER [See caption above]COLOR PHOTO: SIMON BRUTY FAST START It didn't take Coughlin long to win her first medal at worlds as she led the U.S. to victory in Sunday's 4x100 free relay.COLOR PHOTO: PHOTOGRAPH BY AL BELLO/GETTY IMAGES MASTERSTROKE Neither big nor strong for an elite swimmer, Coughlin has focused on developing impeccable technique.COLOR PHOTO: HEINZ KLUETMEIER SHE'S FLYING Coughlin has a wingspan longer than her body and a powerful kick that helps her pull away from opponents.

With flexibility that would make Gumby envious, she can bend atthe waist and touch her elbows to the floor.